Microbial and metal analysis of some patients hair and nails of Alamal Hospital in Riyadh

Abstract

This study endeavor to detect presence of microorganisms (bacteria and/or fungi) in hair and nails of some patients hosted in Alamal Hospital , Riyadh , Saudi Arabia, that may become opportunist pathogens at somewhat favourable condition. Sixty-four random swabs from end of shaft of scalp hair and nails sample were taken from smoking and drug abusers patient men. Seven bacterial genera and ten fungal genera have been isolated from the tested samples, but nails contains higher bacteria than hair and hair contains higher fungi than nails. The predominant bacteria found were Staphylococcus sp., while Aspergillus sp. was the most fungi isolated. Also, Sixty-four random samples of scalp hair and nails were obtained from smoking and drug abusers patient men. All samples collected were analysed for determining the present of heavy metals in the body. The analytical study may cover some toxic heavy metal such as cadmium, cobalt, copper, iron, lead and zinc . Also the study aim to figure out the role of alcohol, smoking and some drug addicts in increasing or decreasing the residue content of the above mentioned metals. Hair and nails can act as accumulating tissue, so, they are good indicators for body burden of heavy metals for along period. The results provide evidence of high accumulation of heavy metals in hair and nails, it showed that, cadmium, cobalt, copper, iron, lead and zinc are heavy metals detected in this analysis. The average of metal concentration detected are (Cd: 1.14 ± 0.04, 1.53 ± 0.07; Co: 4.92 ± 0.24, 3.20 ± 0.05; Cu: 19.22 ± 0.53, 13.09 ± 0.54; Fe: 20.72 ± 0.49, 23.93 ± 0.2 ; Pb: 24.20 ± 0.43, 28.58 ± 0.75; Zn: 63.01 ± 1.44, 40.38 ± 1.57) μgg-1 in the hair and nails respectively. Statistical analysis (T) test indicates that the concentration of Cd, Co, Pb and Zn were significantly higher in hair of patients compared to healthy person at (P ≤ 0.05), while the concentration of Fe and Cu were not significantly different at (P = 0.05).The concentration levels of the (Cd, Co, Cu, Fe, Pb and Zn) in the nails of the candidate participants. Statistical analysis shows that the concentration of Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn were significantly higher in nails of the patients than those of healthy person at (P ≤ 0.05), however, there was no significant difference in concentration levels of Co and Fe between patients and healthy people at (P = 0.05). The accumulation levels of cobalt, copper and zinc were significantly higher in the hair of the patients that their nails (P ≤ 0.05), although this study revealed significant different in heavy metal contents of cadmium, cobalt, copper, iron, lead and zinc in hair and nails, the study support the result of earlier work, however still no work has been reported to explain this accumulative of heavy metal in hair and nails. The present study investigate the ability of some microorganisms isolated from hair and nails samples of Al-amal hospital patients to tolerate the toxicity of a multi heavy metal medium and then possible application in the remediation of metal pollution. The effect of cadmium, cobalt, and iron on the growth of fungal strains (Candida albicans, Microsporum cains and Aspergillus nigar) respectively were examined. Also, The effect of copper, lead and zinc on the growth of bacterial strains (Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus epidermidis and Escherichia coli) respectively were examined. The results showed that Candida albicans, Microsporum cains and Aspergillus nigar can grow in media containing up to (300) μgml-1 of cadmium , (200) μgml-1 of cobalt and (400) μgml-1 of iron respectively, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus epidermidis and Escherichia coli can grow in media containing up to (400) μgml-1 of copper, iron and zinc respectively.